Stephen C. Host
GODERICH, Ontario — Cleanup continues after the Feb. 1 incident in which a Goderich-Exeter Railway train ran away on a 3% grade on a line leading to Goderich Harbour, derailing, hitting two vehicles, and demolishing a shed before coming to a halt [see “Digest: Canadian short line train derails …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 2, 2021] Remarkably, there were no injuries, even though two people were in one of the vehicles. The harbor area has two customers — Compass Minerals, the world’s largest underground salt mine, on the north side of the harbor, and Goderich Elevators, on the south side. The runaway came to rest a few hundred feet off its rails, near the area formerly served by Canadian Pacific, which removed its tracks in 1988. With two locomotives unavailable, Goderich-Exeter parent Genesee & Wyoming sent a locomotive from the Guelph Junction Railway to provide service and help with the cleanup. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced on Feb. 1 it was sending an investigator to the accident site and is gathering information on the incident. — With information from Stephen C. Host
